1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus which has a door that can be opened and closed when processing such as sheet jam handling and maintenance is performed.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus such as a copying machine and a printer has an openable/closable door that can make a sheet conveyance path or inside of the apparatus accessible for maintenance and sheet jam handling (hereinafter, referred to as jam).
In some image forming apparatuses, a conveyance guide forming a sheet conveyance path is partly disposed at the door. Opening of the door makes the sheet conveyance path accessible for removal of a jammed sheet therein.
In some image forming apparatuses, an image forming unit and a sheet feed unit which feeds a sheet therein to the image forming unit are vertically arranged, and a sheet conveyance path is vertically provided therebetween at a side portion of a body of the image forming apparatus. In the image forming apparatuses, a door for removing a jammed sheet is provided such that a rotation center thereof is disposed at a lower portion of a side face of the image forming apparatus, so that the door can be opened from the topside thereof to make the conveyance path accessible.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-137453 discusses an image forming apparatus having the above configuration in which a conveyance guide from a sheet feed unit to an area downstream of an image forming unit is provided beside a door, so that an entire area from the sheet feed unit to the area downstream of the image forming unit becomes accessible by opening the door. This configuration enhances the visual recognition of a sheet jammed in a sheet conveyance path, resulting in easy finding of the jammed sheet.
However, the conventional image forming apparatus as described above does not provide good workability for removing a sheet jammed around the rotation center of the door (hereinafter, referred to as jam handling capacity). In the apparatus, when the door is open, a jammed sheet can be easily recognized, but cannot be easily removed because the area around the rotation center is not accessible from the top side of the door due to a long distance therebetween.